[Ghoulish Delight]

Damn.

Well, I grabbed the spot at approx. 6:10. Curb of the hub, dead center. It was beautiful. CP joined me a half hour later, blanket in hand. Moonliner stopped by around 7:30 to say hi, went off for a couple more attractions, came back, bought some treats, and we hung out until iSm showed up around 9. At 9:15, 3 balloons were released...all three went about as straight vertical as I've ever seen. We actually commented that perhaps the air was too calm and we'd be watching the show through a thick layer of smoke.

Then the show started...first off, crowd control had left a walkway along the sidewalk on the castle side of the street. And it remained open as the show started. This meant that the people up front who were right behind the walkway had to stand up to see. We futilely tried to get them to sit down, but it was no use, especially when the CM came by and told them all to stand up. Bugger. So we stood up to watch. Not a big deal (though definitely less indulgent than lounging), but puzzling none-the-less.

Aaanyway, as the show started, we instantly noticed things were a bit off. A lot of the pyro, most noticeble the shooting stars, seemed kinda low. The stars weren't even making it all the way across. The Mickey was waaaay off. Then, bizarrely, the skull projection on the Matterhorn was aimed low and to the right, until someone apparantly got over there and shoved the projector back into place (the Mara projection just before had been aimed just fine).

But the real disappointment came at the end of the interlude between Pirates and Fronteirland. About 2/3 of the way through the interlude, the pyro suddenly became very sparse...and then non-existent. The Davy Crocket theme came on, but zero action in the sky. Finally, the music came to an abrupt halt, a minute later the castle lighting changed, and finally the announcement was made.

Here's the odd part, the annoucement was the "Due to winds at higher elevations" announcement. Ummm, everybody kinda simultaneously looked up at the huge cloud of smoke that was barely crawling across the sky. And then, as if some CM were thinking exactly what we were thinking, one more wind-testing balloon was released from behind the castle. We watched as it once again went up, straight as an arrow. Winds at higher elevations my ass (I don't care what a certain crawfish-hating CM told us about 'sudden wind shift').

What a tease for poor Moonliner. I guess it's good that they at least got to see half of the show rather than it getting canceled outright, but it's still disappointing.